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Economic development, comprehensive plan and work force housing are priorities

Ruidoso
Published 1:58 p.m. MT June 9, 2015

Nick Pappas, standing, Ruidoso's new planning and zoning director, and Greg Cory. new community development director and former village councilor, say they are a good fit for the village.(Photo: Dianne Stallings &#8212; Ruidoso News)

At the age of five, when other children were playing with the latest popular toy, Nick Pappas was designing and building cities and street systems with pennies.

Did anyone hear destiny calling?

"I didn't know what planning was until I was in college, but when I was a kid, I had pennies to play with and I would lay out entire outlines of towns and streets," the village's new planning and zoning director said during an interview last week that included Greg Cory, Ruidoso's recently named community development director. "And at the age of five, you can see clearly in a picture my parents took of me that there was a round-about (intersection design). I had never seen or heard of a round-about before."

Born and reared in Belen, where his father worked for the University of New Mexico and his mother teaches in the Los Lunas school system, Pappas earned a bachelor's degree in geography from UNM and then decided to complete his master's in urban planning.

"The University of Kansas snagged me," he said. "They gave me a really great offer."

He earned his master's in 2010, and found a job before graduation as director of planning for Excelsior Springs, Mo., a suburb of Kansas City, where he stayed for four a half years. Because of family issues, he decided to move back to New Mexico and landed a job with the Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments as regional transportation planning program manager.

"But I realized city planning was more my forte than regional," he said. "That's when I applied for the job here."

A few months later, he was offered the job.

"I was very lucky," Pappas said. "Ruidoso is kind of a home away from home. We used to come up every summer as a family. It's near and dear to my heart and I'm glad to be back."

Village officials asked him to take a look at certain progressive initiatives such as smart growth, Pappas said.

"They definitely wanted me to start on (an updated) Comprehensive Plan," he said. And just getting this department together a little more, a little more customer and developer friendly."

Cory returns

Greg Cory moved to Ruidoso about 15 years ago. He started the regional offices for a Dallas-based bank back in 2008, opened a Ruidoso office later that year, then one in El Paso and one in Albuquerque in 2009. He served one term as village councilor from 2006 to 2010, but did not seek reelection to focus on getting the bank up and running. In 2013, he ran and won a seat on the Ruidoso School Board and now serves as president.

"Our bank sold Jan. 1 to Plains Capital Bank, a Texas-based institution that had no desire to be in New Mexico," Cory said.

He looked at other banking jobs in New Mexico and out of state, but he said Mayor Tom Battin and Village Manager Debi Lee told him he appeared a good match for community development director with a heavy emphasis on economic development, work force housing, special water projects and the comprehensive plan.

"Tom and I had worked together and he didn't want me to leave, and frankly, I didn't want to leave," Cory said.

He already was serving on the affordable housing task force, representing banking. The council had authorized the drafting of an affordable housing plan and in his new position, Cory is tidying up the final draft of that plan, hoping for adoption by resolution in July with an ordinance to follow.

As envisioned in the plan, three areas of need exist. They are transitional housing, one and two bedroom units with security for domestic violence victims and homeless students; assisted living; and starter homes.

"We're talking about affordable homes for teachers and fire fighters and policemen and nurses," he said "That shouldn't threaten values or safety. The village shouldn't be the developer, but might use some of the inventory of village-owned properties to trade or sell" with proceeds going into a housing trust. "I don't think the intention is for the village to get into the development business, but it can facilitate it by donating land, waiving fees and making zoning exceptions."

Pappas said he's also looking at reintroducing verbiage to allow granny flats, so named because a part of a home that is set aside for a different generation, or as is common in Ruidoso, a renter.

"They were in one comp plan," Cory said. "The problem was we were focusing more on Midtown and shouldn't have."

Tasks ahead

Cory said the weaknesses and strengths of the two men complement each other.

"I have a strong historical base knowledge of the community and know a lot of folks, but I don't know anything about planning," Cory said. "But Nick brings ample planning skills to the table.

"Village officials want to see a comprehensive plan, which by design is a long-range set of goals envisioning what the community should be down the road. The council adopted a plan in 2006. We brought in consultants in 2005 and spent a fortune, and it had some really lofty ideals and arguably, some a bit too idealistic, and not necessarily practical. The plan was updated by resolution in 2010."

The two men currently are reviewing the previous plan to identify worthy components for the new plan and discard concepts that don't work.

"Then we'll work on getting a new one drafted," Cory said. "A critical part is collaboration with community members. We'll probably use an outside consultant (for that portion)."

But Pappas said the actual drafting and technical aspects can be handled in-house.

Economic development thrust

"Some of the past economic development efforts tried to make us something we are not and never will be," Cory said. "Whether you are a fan of tourism or not, it drives our economy and the village is doing whatever it can to support that."

The village was scheduled to wrap up negotiations to acquire a large piece of land to create a Midtown parking option to help small business owners and ease shopping for tourists, he said.

"Our population is declining locally and county wide," Cory said. "I heard last night that school enrollment dropped more than 4.5 percent in the last three years. County wide our wages are 30 percent less than the state average. We've got some challenges. I know economic development has been attempted without success before. I'm hoping I'll change that."

"Practically speaking, I want to see fewer empty store fronts," he said. "Those buildings are going to be filled by small businesses."

Outside of the tourist center of Midtown, Cory said the community needs to expand support services, specifically medical in view of the aging population. Other options are assisted living centers.

"One of the outcomes of a comprehensive plan is that we can use it for a revision of our zoning code," Pappas said. For instance, in Midtown, the approach could be more "form-based" which prescribes a type of business, instead of a blanket commercial approval. According to a definition by the Form-Based Code Institute, "A form-based code is a land development regulation that fosters predictable build results and a high-quality public realm by using physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for the code."

Cory wants to compile a list of assets in the region and create one-stop for someone who wants to open a small business, where they can receive demographic information, learn how to register the business and about other requirements or recommendations.

Pappas is focused on providing better customer service, delivery of information and transparency, as well as accessibility. The planning and zoning office, including the building division, no longer will close for lunch. It will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, in village hall.